


Who's to say

by Nani230



Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: A lot of hugs, Angst, Depression, Great Depression, Other, Post-Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), noir needs a hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-10-14 10:13:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17506634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nani230/pseuds/Nani230
Summary: After returning home to his dimension Peter realizes how hopeless he feels. Until a surprise from his new friends makes it better.So this is bad and basically like every other Noir fic, he's is sad and the spider fam cheers him up, because I had a strong need for sad Noir. There isn't a solid plot at this point. Opps. Just like writing my depressed fave.





	1. One

Peter Benjamin Parker, also known as Spider-Noir to a handful of colorful others, sat alone in his one bedroom apartment worrying about his friends. In his mind he cursed himself for getting attached to the group of Spiderlings, as Miles had called them on a few occasions, he had known that their time together would be short but that hasn't stopped them from earning a place in his heart. Not knowing what happened once he left was the worst part, he feels like he could handle the separation if it had been under less life-threatening circumstances. But it hadn’t been, in true spiderman fashion they had gotten there and everything had gone south. Peter sighed and took his round glasses off his face and rubbed his eyes tiredly, he had been pulling all-nighters since he got back from Miles’s dimension. Unfortunately, time hadn’t stopped while he was away and crime had continued in his absence now he was doing overtime to try and catch up, those Nazis didn’t punch themselves after all. 

Peter sighed and while leaning back in his chair, wincing as it squeaked loudly, he ran his hand through his hair and glanced over at his Rubik's cube. What had once been bright colors has slowly started to fade throughout the days. He grimaced at the thought of it looking like everything else here in his dimension, cold and grey. A quick glance out the window let him know that the morning was fast approaching and that it might be a good idea to at least attempt to catch up on some sleep. He stood up from his old desk chair and after a moment of mental debating he decided to forgo washing up and simply fell into his bed. Despite being tired and sore from many nights of crime fighting sleep did not come easily to the monochrome detective. After what felt like hours of silently contemplating sleep finally managed to overtake him. As Peter drifted into unconscious his dreams were less than pleasant.

Growing up during the Depression didn’t lend itself to being a very happy time, something that was exaggerated even more as Spiderman. Peter couldn’t remember the last time he had a restful nights sleep or at the very least a pleasant dream. Upon waking up Peter regretted not washing up or changing into his night clothes, he reached blindly on his nightstand for a class of cold water to try to wash the unpleasant taste out of his mouth. The glass was placed back on the nightstand and Peter grabbed his glasses. As the world adjusted into focus Peter groaned and pulled himself out of bed slowly and feeling like he had been hit by a train. 

Peter gazed mournfully at the warm bed but forced himself to remain standing upright. Sometimes he wonders what it would be like to fall into bed and never get back up again, but he couldn’t do that to the people of New York, or his aunt. When staring at the bed got to be too tempting Peter turned away and made his way into his little dinky kitchen to look for something to eat. His body moved on autopilot as he made himself a sandwich and sat contemplatively at his table near the window. The sandwich had no taste and he should have gotten some water to wash it down but his body didn’t feel like moving from where he sat. There was an ache in his bones that went deeper than the punches left by unknown assailants. Peter stared out the window with blank eyes that had long since lost their shine. It was an incredibly selfish thought but he wishes that he had stayed behind in Miles’s dimension. Being glitched would have been better than this, at least then he would have gotten to see the colors before he went. Lost in thought Peter failed to notice the black portal swirling behind him. Peter didn’t know how long he was going to sit there, not doing anything, he felt pointless and was more than happy to spend an indeterminate time “brooding” as the other spider folks had called it. 

“Noir you in here?” A voice called out in his room causing him to jump and reach under the table for his trusty pistol, he pointed it with deadly accuracy at the source of the voice only to find his hand being webbed to the wall. 

“Jeez, maybe don’t point one of those at the guys coming to visit you!” Peter blinked a few times unable to believe what he was seeing, standing there in stark contrast to his black and white world were the rest of the spider folks.

“Ham, is that really you?” Peter said after a few beats of silence, and the slightly unsure silence was broken by everybody loudly talking over each other. 

If his hand hadn’t been stuck to the wall Peter might have had a hard time believing that they were really there. As he blinked a few times just to be sure Spiderham also known as Peter Porker hopped over to where Peter was webbed up. 

“In the animated flesh,” Ham reached out and through, what Peter remembered as “cartoon” logic undid the webbing on his hands. The other spiderfolk kept talking loudly and Peter rubbed his temples, as happy as he was to see them if they kept this up it wouldn’t be long before the coppers showed up and started asking questions. Peter looked down at where Porker was standing next to him to his spider friends, they were all really there. Peter B and Miles appeared to be arguing about something and Peni and Gwen were trying to figure out how best to explain the new device that Peni invented to Noir. 

Peter slowly stood up and awkwardly rubbed his arms as he debated how to ask them to keep it down and also what they were doing there and how they even managed to get there in the first place. But he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth so to speak. 

“While it’s all fine and dandy to see you all, could one of you give me the low down as to why you're here?” Peter asked and all eyes turned towards him.

“Noir!” Peni shouted and ran up to hug him, “When I got back to my dimension and after I fixed up Sp//der, of course, I found out a way that we can all travel to see each other!” 

Peter felt himself tense up slightly at the sudden contact before hesitantly returning the hug.

“Yeah we’re getting the gang back together and it wasn’t complete without our favorite monochrome spider,” Mile’s added on before hurrying over to join in on the hug action. 

“Ditto,” Gwen said, Peter didn’t know what that word meant but he felt like he could take a pretty good guess, given the context. Peter B just gave him a smile from where he was standing and Peter took that to mean the same as what Gwen had said. 

Peter was taking in everything that the others had said to him and blinked to hide back what suspiciously looked like tears. 

“Yeah, we’re going to be hosting mandatory hangouts so that we can trade cool spidey stories and we can even finish teaching you what all the different colors are,” Mile’s continued.

“Well that sounds like a mighty fine time to me,” Was all that Peter could say, it was a lot to process on very little sleep and between the bright colors his companions were emitting compared to his world was really starting to make his headache. 

“Well, what are we waiting for let’s get going,” Ham impatiently stated tapping his foot with a disproportionately loud sound. 

“Let me just grab a few things real quick like and then I’ll be right behind you,” Peter started to move towards his bedroom to quickly change his clothes. The door closed behind him as Peter breathed out and rubbed his eyes again. After his friend's sudden appearance the adrenaline was wearing off and he could feel the tiredness returning. He shook his head a few times to clear the wisps of sleep and went about changing into his spider suit. As he was doing this he realized one of two things, first, his friends had seen him without his mask on. He cringed slightly at the thought but then tried to logic that they hadn’t seen his face too well. The lights in his apartment aren’t very bright and the sun had done a significant amount. Surely they hadn’t seen him all too well or someone would have said something. He finished putting on most of his suit and went to the bathroom to look for his mask, it had found its way in there somehow. He glanced at the mirror before he put the mask on. He looked worse than Peter B did when he first met him. There were significant bags under his eyes, a bruise on his cheekbone, and then there were the scars that covered his face. The most prominent one went across his nose and down his cheek. Peter looked away and pulled the mask the rest of the way down. 

Peter made his way back into his tiny bedroom, picked his trademark hat and remembered his second important thought. The Rubik's cube. It started losing its color as soon as he got back. Peter hurriedly grabbed a few more items he thought he might need, a small gun, a handful of knives, pen and paper, his usual Spiderman items. After securing everything to his person he swung open the bedroom door.

“Alright let’s make tracks,” Peter said as he smoothly walked into the room. He always felt better with the mask on.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Peni replied and opened the portal. Peter didn’t even ask where they were going, anywhere would be better than his universe.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Spiderfam portals to Miles's dimension to hang out with each other and visit Aunt May! Noir feels happy! Yay! 
> 
> Not really planning this being Ham/noir fic, but hey read into it what you want. Also, this is just kind of how I imagine all their interactions. Anyways, Peter B is awesome, I love him.

Peter stepped through the inky black portal, for a brief moment it felt like all the air was sucked out of his lungs. He glanced around for his friends but as soon as he went to ask them what in sam hill was going on, he had landed in one of the other spider's dimensions. Noir blinked at the harsh onslaught of colors and bright lights, ouch, his headache made itself known once again. Like most of his enemies, it had come back with a murderous vengeance. 

Quickly looking around for his friends Peter breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw them standing around him. 

“We’re in my dimension, for the time being, we weren’t sure how the people in the other dimensions would take all the different Spidermen,” Miles explained answering Noir’s unspoken question. Peter gave him a nod to show that he had heard and took a moment to look around.

It was brighter and more colorful than he had remembered but then again that just might have been his own dimension slowly draining out the color. Which is a thought that Peter definitely didn’t want to be thinking about right now. A hand slipped it’s way into his hand causing him to jump a little, he looked next to him to see Peni standing there. 

“I’m so glad we all get to hang out again, I missed you!” Peni exclaimed and looked up at Peter with little platonic hearts in her eyes. Peter felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time when he looked down at the young girl.

“Awww geez kid, I’m quite keen on seeing you as well!” Noir felt his mouth smile from behind his mask and pulled Peni up to sit on his shoulders. 

“Yay, Noir is the best, take that Peter B,” Peni called laughing from her perch on Noir’s shoulders. 

Peter B. turned around and rolled his eyes at the two of them but didn’t respond. Even though the time he had spent with the spiders was limited he had quickly learned not to protest anything unless he wanted everyone to repeat the action for the rest of his life. As a rough estimate.

“Hey, no fair I want to ride Noir,” Ham said and pouted for a second before he realized what exactly he had just said, “Wait no, that’s not what I meant!” It was too late, everyone was looking at him, sans Noir, with the exact same expression, apparently that absolute shit-eating grin was one of those universal constants. 

Peter looked at Ham with a look of confusion, he must have said one of those new “slangs” he had yet to learn. It must have been a pretty important one going by the way the rest of the gang started teasing him. Peter rolled his eyes behind his mask. 

“Don’t worry trotter, you can ride me if you want,” He extended his hand down to the left where Ham was standing. He must have said the wrong thing, going by the howling laughter from the other spiders. 

“Okay there’s no way you didn’t do that on purpose,” Ham said sulkily but accepted his hand nonetheless. Peter pulled his pig counterpart up to sit slightly in front of Peni. Since the pig was small enough he managed to fit on Peni’s lap without causing any major discomfort to Peter. 

“I have no idea what you're talking about trotter,” Peter smiled underneath his mask, a real smile, he mentally filed this interaction away in the small part of his mind reserved only for his most precious memories. 

When the laughter had died down slightly they began walking towards Aunt May’s house. She had been asked ahead of time, according to Gwen, if it would be alright for them to stay there for the afternoon. Peter tried to not to feel disappointed to hear that it was only for the afternoon, but quickly tried to push that away and savor this limited time with his friends. 

They walked slowly towards May’s house, it would have been faster to swing but for now, they just wanted to enjoy the moment talking. Peni and Ham were having a conversation from their perches on his shoulder about technology, Noir could only understand a word here and there so he tuned into Miles and Gwen’s conversation. They appeared to be having a fast-paced discussion about, that boy? Noir could follow even less of what they were saying than tech talk that was going on above his head. Peter finally turned his head towards Peter B., he was walking a few steps ahead of Noir but not quite with Gwen and Miles. Noir quickened his pace slightly to catch up to the other Peter.

They walked side by side in silence for a little while, Noir was pretty sure that Peter, err Peter B., to keep things from getting topsy turvy in his head Peter decided to refer to the colorful Peter as B, for the time being. B had given Peter a slight nod when he had caught up but was very obviously listening in to what Miles and Gwen were saying. B musta know what those two were babbling about because occasionally shake his head or let out a little laugh. 

Noir as thankful for the brief silence, he wasn't this used to so many people, friendly people, in his company at such a fast pace. The more he thought about it he was sure that he had never had this many friends separately either. His aunt and uncle didn’t really count as friends, they were always his parents in his mind’s eye. There had been Mary Jane, a sweet doll with whom he was beginning to get close to when he was younger but she had passed away to influenza. After her, there had been a bartender who he had started to get chummy with, but later he had found out that he was dirty and had been convinced to help gather information for the Nazis. Noir shivered at what they had done to the barkeep when he had tried to turncoat, it was before his Spidey days but Peter had seen the obit in the newspaper. And...no there’s no way those were the only two friends he had, there were more people, but try as he might he couldn’t think of another name, another face. After the barkeep had passed he had been bitten by the spider goddess, so he hadn’t had much luck in with a social life thereafter.

Peter thought about his mentor, Ben Urich, had they been friends? Ben had ended up being dirty but he had still helped Peter along the way. But that’s not quite a friendship by any means. Noir looked around at his friends, he had to make sure to protect them. He had lost them once before and he wasn’t sure that he could do it again. 

Peter then thought of the greying cube sitting at home on his desk, he would be sure to grab a few more colorful things before it was time to leave. Maybe it had been a fluke? A one-time occurrence, maybe the next items he brought back with him would hold their color for longer. He wasn't in denial, he was just, experimenting, yeah that's it.

Lost in thought Peter hadn’t realized that they had already made it to May’s, B webbed the doorbell and they all stood there quietly waiting, one of the few times the group actually managed to remain quiet. When May opened the door she smiled and waved them in.

“It’s so good to see you all again dear’s,” May said and looked the ragtag group over, “Well, who wants some tea?”

With that, the group broke their silence and began discussion again, Noir helped Ham and Peni off of his shoulders and tried not to be too disappointed by their absence. Unfortunately, his body didn’t seem to agree with him, while the two together were about as light a feather, the bruises on Peter’s body didn’t seem to agree with him. Noir felt a small groan leave his lips, he brought his gloved hands up to rub his neck to try to relieve some of the pain that had built up there. He was painfully reminded of the grifter that had socked him causing his neck to snap to the side painfully. And the mobster that had snuck up behind him and walloped his back. And how the Doc Ock from his dimension had thrown him up against that wall. The list went on from there. 

Peter B. looked at Noir when he heard the man let out a small groan, this was the second time he had done that. While Peter wasn’t unfamiliar with the aches and pains of being Spiderman, Noir looked like he had been really roughed up. What was normally good posture was slouched down, his head wasn’t held up as high as normal, man this guy really needed to take a break. 

“Hey Noir,” Peter said and walked over to where the other man was standing, “Everything alright?” He said it quietly enough so that the others couldn’t overhear, based on everything he had seen of the other man so far, he could tell that he wasn’t keen on having a lot of attention on him.

“It’s nothing, a few low down criminals got the drop on me but I made sure they got a good walloping,” Noir responded, standing up a little straighter so that Peter B would hopefully drop the topic. 

Peter B huffed out a little laugh at the old-timey language, “Whatever you say man, but if you need an aspirin or something, let me know okay?” Peter stared at Noir willing the other to accept so that he could help a fellow spider out. He knows what it feels like to punish yourself and Noir was essentially himself, albeit from another dimension, but he was still a Peter Parker. 

“Sure can do my good buddy,” Noir responded, knowing full well that he wouldn’t take any medications unless it was absolutely necessary. They were too expensive for just a few bruises and he wasn’t a ninny, he would deal with it as he did with all his other injuries. 

Peter B. nodded and turned back to where the kids and Ham were crowding around Aunt May telling her different stories from their universes. 

“And then I pulled my hoof out of the jelly jar and they were gone!” Ham finished what was very obviously a humorous story that the two other Peter’s had missed out on. 

All the Spiders gathered around the table were laughing along with May, the tea kettle whistles from the other room and May leaves to go make some tea for everyone. Peter B slips back into the conversation without any trouble only for Miles and Gwen to start ragging on him for something or another. Peter lingers at the doorway for a few moments before deciding to go help Aunt May, not seeing a spot for him to sit and still not quite ready to talk with the whole group. Did he even know how to address that many folks? The answer was not very likely and he would like to avoid looking like a dimwit in front on them. 

Peter walked around the table careful not to distract his friends from their conversation. He entered the kitchen without saying anything and announced his presence by letting his boot-clad feet fall heavily on the hardwood floors. May looked up from pouring the hot water into the assorted mugs on a banged up serving tray.

“Be a dear would you and grab some sugar from that cupboard over there and some cream from the fridge,” May said to Peter while pointing where the items were located. He and May hadn’t had much of chance to talk despite being the first to arrive at her house when he had first gotten here. It was in the same spot, the neighborhood was a lot better and the house was less run down, but it was still Aunt May’s house. This was the life May deserved, Noir thought about his own Aunt May in his dimension. She was always so full of light, even now, even though she couldn’t recognize him anymore, she knew she should and always made an effort to make him feel better. In his dimension, if you lived longer than 35 you had lived a long full life. May was only 32 when a fog had fallen over her mind, even though Peter knew there was nothing he could have done he still felt slightly at fault. Maybe if he hadn’t killed the Vulture, maybe if he had gotten to Uncle Ben in time, all the different possibilities were racing through his mind when he felt a light touch on his arm. He jumped and almost lost hold of the sugar bowl in his hands, he hadn’t realized he had zoned out again. He stared sheepishly through the mask at this dimensions May standing next to him. She was, as Miles had said, a true Peter wrangler, somehow she always knew what they needed. May didn’t push him to say anything just took the bowl from his hands and pushed a cup of tea in his hands. 

Peter rubbed the back of his head through the mask, good golly how sad was he, couldn’t even do a simple task without getting overthrown with emotion. His mask was reflected back up at him from the tea in his hands, or at least it would have been if he wasn’t shaking. Aunt May had taken the tea to the others and left him standing in the kitchen. Noir was debating staying in the kitchen before a voice in his head reminded him how ridiculous he was being. Here he was finally with all his friends, in this wonderful and colorful dimension, but all he could manage to do was hide in the shadows feeling sorry for himself. Peter stood up straight and gave himself a mental shake, there’s time for brooding later when he’s alone. Right now he wants to spend time with his friends and there’s nothing that was gonna stop him. 

Peter walks into the kitchen, teacup clenched in his hands in an effort to keep from shaking and he looks around for a moment for a good place to sit. He eventually decides on standing behind Peter B. leaning slightly on the wall. The conversations of his friends washing over him, his hands don’t shake as much. Noir pulls his mask back enough to take a sip of the tea, it was perfect, of course. He quickly pulled the mask back down after though, there was no reason for the other to have to see his face. When the conversation called for it Noir made sure to interject with some of his own “old fashioned” slang to get a few laughs from the others. He knew exactly what he was saying, between B and Ham he had learned what some of his slang meant in this day and age. Of course, he would never let the others know that he was doing it on purpose. B might have suspected but thankfully no one believed him. 

Eventually, the gang made their way into the living room and were playing video games. Once again, Peter was just fine with watching the others play around and banter. At some point Ham had crawled on his lap, Peter wasn’t quite sure what to do about this. He tensed up and looked around at the others for some sort of cue. When he wasn’t able to figure out what he was supposed to do in this situation, he settled on staying perfectly still. Ham would eventually realize what he was doing and get off, or he would make himself comfortable by sitting in the gap between Noirs legs. Peter was used to Ham and Peni crawling on him from time to time, but this was a new experience and he had no idea what to do. After a few moments of Ham trying to get comfortable and looking strangely at him, Ham crawled off and back into his spot. Peter let out a small sigh of relief, sure he was a little disappointed at the loss of contact, but it was probably for the best. He would rather sit by himself then force Ham so stay near him.

Unaware to Noir the rest of the group observed this interaction with curiosity, they had started to notice sighs of relief and the uncomfort with touching that Noir was showcasing. They tried to think back to when they had first met but there had been some much going on that they couldn’t find any similar instances. With a collective shrug, they resumed their games. Ham and Peter B watched Noir for a little while longer after that before getting sucked back into the activity. But there was something that was bugging them about the monochrome spider.

Peni, who had been leaning on Noir, who has somewhat been like a father figure to her, scooted a little bit away. Maybe Noir just wasn't the touchy-feely type, maybe something had happened to him and being touched made him uncomfortable. Oh gods, Peni felt terrible at the thought of accidentally making Noir feel uncomfortable. She frowned to herself deciding to make more of an effort to not be so up in his business all the time. She knew the man was too kind to tell the others that he didn’t want to be touched so she also decided to talk about it with them later when he left. The thought about talking about Noir behind his back gave her guilt butterflies, but if it made him happier then she would be glad to do it.

It did not go unnoticed to Peter when Peni scooted away from him, he tried to push down the feeling of disappointment again. She must have realized what she was doing and wanted to move away from him. It was okay though, he got it, he really did, he wouldn’t want to sit next to him either. The words from his dimensions Aunt May rang in his ears, “Killing makes you less human Peter.” Peter blinked a few times and leaned farther into the couch. Why did he ever think this was a good idea, he should have just sat on the floor like he had wanted to but had eventually been coerced into sitting on the couch. B must have told them about him feeling under the weather and they had felt bad. He looked down and saw his hands shaking again, he just moved them under his legs so the other spiders wouldn’t notice them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow all these conversations being described but not actually written out, it sounds like the author is either really lazy and bad at long conversations or moving the story along :) You were fooled, you thought Noir was going to be happy for a while but then I came in and just trashed that idea. Noir doesn't know how to react to having friends and the last time he probably got a friendly touch was from Aunt May.


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 10 points, an egg cream, and an element of your choosing to be written in the next chapter to the lovely reader who finds the foreshadowing ;)

Peter found himself having a hard time paying attention to the spider's conversations around him, his hands were firmly wedged underneath his legs and starting to lose feeling. He couldn’t quite get his brain back in as he had before. Noir felt his head grow fuzzy and what would had been comforting chatter before was starting to give him anxiety. Peter knew that he was sitting there with his friends on the couch, but his mind was doing it’s damndest to float away from his body. He could see the colors and the television in front of him, he could feel the worn old couch that he was sitting on, he felt the bruises and his headache, but at the same time, he couldn’t. Peter knew all these things were going on around him but they didn’t feel real. He always hated whenever this happened. While it wasn’t the first time this floaty feeling had affected him, it was certainly one of the worse ones. Noir did everything he could think of to get his back down to earth, counting backwards, trying to blink the mental fuzz away but to no avail. He thought about the matchbook that was currently sitting his pocket, desperate times right?

Noir stood up and quietly made his way to the bathroom, he went to pull the matchbook out of his pocket only to find it a mushy mess. Dang, that must have happened when he fell into that puddle, one or two days ago. Peter sighed and braced himself on the edges of the sink. Why was he like this, why couldn’t he just enjoy time with his friends? A small growl escaped his mouth expressing his anger at his-self. With a small amount of desperation, Peter looked around the small washroom for something to bring him back to earth. Seeing nothing Peter realized that he might as well use what he already had. He undid some of the buttons of his overcoat and the button down underneath it. Finding a particularly large bruise on his side he pushed down on the discolored skin, it was 20 different shades of grey and gruesome even for being monochrome. The pain buzzed throughout his body radiating from the patch of afflicted skin. 

Noir gritted his teeth and let the pain wash over him, effectively grounding him to the present. Fixing his shirt and coat he made his way back out to where his friends were. His mind was finally able to focus again but he had a feeling if he stayed here for much longer he would need to ground himself again. When Peter stepped back into the living room he was surprised to see all the spider people standing and hugging each other. As he walked closer he could hear everyone saying their goodbyes to each other. 

“There you are man, we didn’t realize what time it had gotten to be,” Miles said to Noir as he walked back up to the group. “I’ve got to go work on homework and so does Gwen and Peni!”

“Ahhh I see, I’m sure you will do fine work on those homes Mile’s” Noir replied, he was disappointed at having to leave but he couldn’t stop himself from making jokes with the younger spider. 

“Thanks old man,” Miles said laughing quietly before glancing at Noir in thought, whatever conclusion he must have arrived at wasn’t something that Noir would know because Miles went back to saying goodbye to the other spiders. 

The rest of the goodbyes proceed in a similar fashion, leaving him with either a handshake or a simple nod. Noir pushed down his feelings of disappointment when he saw that he was the only one getting this treatment.

When Peni approached him he leaned down so that she could explain to him how the device would allow him to travel from dimension to dimension. 

“...and see this button here is mine because it’s so cute! And then here’s yours, we put your Rubiks cube on there for your symbol.” Peni said pointing excitedly at all the different buttons on small rectangle. “And this light here will flash up whenever we have another gathering like this! Miles said he wanted to see you guys every week and I agree but Gwen and Peter B said that it might be too much. So we don’t know when the next official hangout is.” Peni was slightly out of breath when she finished her explanation and looked at Noir with wide eyes.

“That’s some very nice work my dear, I’m honored that you guys entrust me with something this powerful,” Peter responded reaching over to ruffle Peni’s hair. He meant every word he had said if this device fell into the wrong hands a villain could cause a lot of havoc in another dimension. 

“Well see that’s the good thing, it can’t fall into the wrong hands, only spider people can operate it, I designed that feature myself,” Peni explained, obviously proud of her dimension hopper.

Noir felt better with that knowledge and joined back with the group to say goodbye. Peni had shown everyone how to open the portal back to their dimensions and they were leaving one by one. Gwen was the first one to swing off, followed by Ham, Peni, and Miles. B looked at Noir as he watched his friends disappear through the portals that took them home.

“Look Noir, if you ever need anything, my dimension is always open, even if all you need is an aspirin okay?” Peter B wanted to make sure the other spider wasn’t too alone.

“Thanks B, I appreciate the offer,” Noir responded knowing that unless it was under dire circumstances he wouldn’t drop by unannounced. 

Peter B shook his head a little and opened his portal, “Till next time Noir.”

“Till next time,” Noir stood, looking dramatic and waiting for Peter B to disappear through the portal before looking around again. Even though it was dark there were still colors everywhere, Peter slowly opened his portal and walked slowly towards it. He didn’t want to leave this beautiful place that held some of his happiest memories but alas he had his own dimension to protect. With that thought, he stepped once again into the inky blackness, this time he did so without the reassuring presence of his friends next to him. 

The second time through the portal went considerably better than the first, now that he knew what to expect and all. When he arrived in his dimension he had to take a moment to adjust to the sheer monochrome and quietness of his home. The streets were so different than those of Miles’s dimension, there was no undercurrent of culture and vibrancy, only darkness and despair. The sirens were like a lonely song in the wind with no one batting an eye at its never-ending song. Peter looked around to see where the portal had spit him back out at, it wasn’t in the best neighborhood but it certainly could have been worse. Peter turned towards the direction of his dreary apartment and began walking. He didn’t quite feel like swinging at the moment and needed a walk to sort out his thoughts. 

His head was painfully clear again, right when he would have given anything to feel that numbness again, and his ever-present headache was pounding behind his ears. It was only once he had been walking for a little bit did he realize that he had forgotten to grab anything colorful to bring back with him. All he had was the remote that Peni had given him. Peter cursed his thoughtlessness and walked a little bit faster, the wind was starting to bite through his coat.

Peter’s mind turned to what he had dubbed “The Couch” incident, why had Ham gotten on his lap in the first place, it didn’t make any sense. Had he wanted the spot where Noir was sitting? No that didn’t add up, if he had wanted the spot, he would have simply asked, the pig was never quiet about what he wanted. For a private eye, Peter sure was having trouble solving this case. Maybe Ham had wanted to see how he was going to react? He knew that he had given him a ride on his shoulders before but that had been partly for convenience's sake. When they had first gotten to Miles’s dimension Porker had mentioned something about not being able to walk at a completely normal speed in the appropriate time, he had said something about the cartoon logic behind it, the rules of which Noir was still trying to figure out. Moving back to the problem at hand, maybe he had done it on accident? That didn’t really seem like something that Ham would do. The only explanation that Peter could think of at the moment that Ham had done something that was customary in his dimension and Peter hadn’t caught on to what he was supposed to do. And for Peni, maybe she had just remembered what he had looked like without his mask off. Even though he was sure that it had been pretty dark and there was a very slight chance that the other spiders got a good look at his face, but maybe Peni had. Peter was going to set a new record for sighs by the time he reached his apartment, it felt like that was all he had been doing lately.

Peter’s small apartment was located above his Private Eye office, the whole city knew how to reach Spiderman if they needed his services. Including the bad guys, unfortunately, it wasn’t uncommon in his earlier days to be ambushed in his own office. After some pretty epic fights in which the bad guy's plan to send him off in a Chicago overcoat hadn’t worked, there was a decrease in attempts to attack him in his own office. It was nice to think that there were still some criminals out there with at least a few manners. That and the stories of his violent attacks on anyone who dared attack him in his own office helped as well. Peter made his way through the office and upstairs to his apartment.

Peter feel down on his bed and started to drift off, opting once again to do his nightly routine, both his spiderly duties as well as the more humans one. It felt like there was lead in his limbs and Peter slowly succumbed to a semi-restful sleep. Tomorrow would be more of the same and there was nothing he could do to change it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't as long as the last chapter because I have a plan for what I want to write next (shocker) and it's too much for me to write atm. So just this for now. Still going to try to update everyday tho.


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noir's no good, filthy rotten day.
> 
> This chapter kind of turned out a little bit like a case study, or like worldbuilding or something of that nature.

Peter slowly came to consciousness as the sun filtered in through his bedroom window, it was a rude awakening and he wished he could have words with the people who had installed such a cruel punishment. This was definitely one of the better nights sleeps he had had in a while. As he stood up his back cracked wonderfully and his headache seemed to have subsided slightly. Peter made his way to the bathroom as per his usual morning routine. 

While he was getting ready for the day he made a mental list of what all he needed to get done. First, he was going down to visit Aunt May for a while. He liked to stop in at least twice a week, at least, to make sure his kindly Aunt was doing okay. Or at least as okay as she could be, given her condition. He had noticed there were certain days that were better than others. One memorable day, before he had met the other spider people, May had even remembered his name. That had been a really good day, he made her tea while they sat and talked. She still couldn’t hold a conversation very well but it had been nice to pretend that everything was alright for a little while. Peter thought about all the modern medicine in Miles’s and the other spider's world, maybe he could ask them if anything had been invented yet that might help May. He knew he shouldn’t, bringing something like that to his world where it didn’t belong would likely have major negative effects, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t think about ways to make May better. 

After visiting May, Peter planned to do a quick patrol around the city, unlike in most the other spider's worlds, Noir was one of the few to go out as Spiderman during the day. Not because he had a preference but with the corruption in the police force, there was very little that they did about the crime around the city. It didn’t matter whether it was day or night in his world, crime was constant and there wasn’t anybody except him out there looking out for the innocent people of his dimension. There was once a detective in one of the nearby stations that Peter had thought was clean for a little while, but it turned out later that it was all an elaborate scheme to get Spiderman to trust him so that he could trap him later and collect the reward. Not having a decent police force or justice system meant that no matter how many criminals he webbed up and left for the police, they would be released in a matter of days anyhow. After a few years of being lenient on criminals, he had found that he wasn’t making in tracks in keeping the streets clean. As time progressed he found himself becoming more and more violent in hopes of a strong beating to make the average criminal become warier of committing a crime. He still wasn’t sure if this method was working as he had hoped. It did have the unintended side effect of making him feel like he was betraying the principles his Aunt and Uncle had taught him. 

Once he had done a quick sweep of the city Peter planned on meeting with an informant from the inside of one of the main drug rings running in the city. All the information that had been given thus far had been correct. Spiderman had destroyed three large shipments that had come in a few weeks ago. The purpose of this meeting was to see if any new information had arisen and to see if there was any way he could get the poor man out of his terrible situation, the mob boss had the joe’s family and was holding them at an undisclosed location, a place that Peter soon hoped to find.

After all this, there was one final swing around the city before he was going to call it a night, the weeks worth of restless nights was really starting to creep up to him. He couldn’t afford to be unalert on the job, not only could it mean the difference between life and death for him, but for somebody else as well. 

Peter finished up his morning routine made his way out of the house, but before he could leave he felt like something was off. He couldn’t quite place it but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Looking around one final time and not seeing anything glaringly wrong or out of place he shrugged and took off down the stairs. As he did he thought about how his approach to his spider identity was different than his counterparts from the other dimensions. Based on what the others had told him, and what he observed, their spider persona was more equally balanced with their identity before they were bitten. Versus his spider persona seemed to be all his life was and Peter Parker was barely present. If it weren’t for Aunt May, Peter Parker wouldn’t likely exist anymore. Peter made all his money as a private eye and while he didn’t have a case at the moment, he had built up some meager funds over the years. Most of which went to Aunt May and her care, God bless John the nurse who he hired to take care of her. 

Peter arrived downstairs into his office, there wasn't much in there, a desk with chairs, a board with various newspaper clippings and photos tacked to it. There had once been a small plant sitting in the corner but it had died some time ago. Honestly, he didn’t even spend that much time here, it existed to mainly be a place where he can easily be reached. As per usual he looked around the room to see if anything was out of place, whenever he wasn’t in, his office door was always unlocked, those in need had the option to leave him a note or letter requesting his help. Seeing nothing he got on with his business.

It was cold. The temperature outside had dropped drastically since the other night, Peter pulled his coat up a little bit higher and swung off into the heart of the city. Once he was sure that he was in the clear he slipped off his spider suit to reveal normal clothing on underneath. He couldn’t visit Aunt May as Spiderman because that would put a target on her head and he’ll be damned if he’s going to let the last person he cares about in his dimension go out like that. Peter folded up his suit and placed it in a duffel bag, he webbed it to the underside of a rickety fire escape and began walking towards Mays house.

It was nowhere near as nice as the house in Miles’s dimension but it was his childhood home nonetheless. Peter let himself into the house but still knocked on the door to let Nurse John know that he was there. In addition, he called out his hellos to be on the safe side. Last time he had really scared the poor fellow and even though John had assured him that it was alright, Peter felt a little bit bad about it.

Peter was slightly concerned when he didn’t hear the usual returning hello and quickly walked through the threshold and into the living room. Aunt May was sitting there on the couch staring blankly at the wall. Peter breathed out a sigh of relief at seeing her okay.

“Hey Aunt May, how have you been?” Peter asked her gently and began slowly approaching her.

“Who are you?” May asked the blank stare was even worse when she was looking at him.

“It’s Peter, Aunt May, I’m your nephew,” This part was never easy and it killed him a little to explain it. 

All May did in return was nod slightly and return to staring at the wall. Knowing that this was a bad day for her Peter made his way into the kitchen. John had left a short note for him knowing there was a good chance that Peter would stop by. 

It read,” Peter, I had to make a quick run to the store, May’s not been having a good day and she was upset that we were out of her favorite tea -John.” Peter smiled as he looked over the note, John was a damn fine nurse for May, he hadn’t ever gotten to know him to well but he was kind enough to be a more than suitable caretaker. 

Peter did a once over to see if there was anything that needed his immediate attention, seeing nothing he made his way back towards May. She had moved from he spot on the couch and walked over towards the window. Peter made sure that his footsteps were extra loud so as to not scare her while he walked to where she was standing. It must have been a really bad day for her because she jumped when she felt his presence near her. 

“Who are you and what are you doing in my house,” May demanded and looked at him with unclear eyes.

“It’s Peter May, I’m your nephew,” Peter repeated, his felt his heart sink a little bit more. 

“I don’t know who you are but I think it might be best if you leave,” May took a small step away from him and moved more towards the kitchen. She was getting noticeably more upset at how close Peter was standing.

“Hey it’s okay I’m not going to hurt you, I just wanted to stop by and say hello,” Peter hated when this happened, it was only the third time but it dug into his heart a little bit more each time.

May didn’t respond this time but she was shaking a little so Peter decided it would be for the best if he just left. He put his hands up and started moving close to the door, “See I’m going no need to be upset,” he attempted to placate her. May didn’t seem comfortable until he was out the door. Peter knew it would be useless to try and go back, he wasn’t too good at this stuff and he’d probably only make it worse.

With a heavy heart, Peter walked back towards where he had left his suit. There wasn’t much of a crowd out today because of the chilly weather but it was enough to make him feel truly alone. His suit was in the same spot he left it, it always was, and he was ready to swing out through the city again. He pushed all his feelings down to keep them from distracting him as he began his patrol around the city. 

Peter managed to put a stop to four different muggings and punched a Nazi in the face for shouting hate speech in the streets at a homeless man. He was getting ready to call it and swing to his rendezvous with his inside man when he noticed a shady group of men standing in an alley. Wanting to hear what they were discussing Peter lowered himself to the wall and started to crawl slowly down. His footing must have been off because the next thing he knew, he was taking a less than graceful tumble right into the thick of the group.

“Well well well, what do we have here? Spiderman you shouldn’t have come here,” A raspy voice came from the shadows followed by a tall man, when Peter looked towards the sound of the voice he saw a gun, cocked, and pointed directly at his head.

“Hey, you fellas wouldn’t happen to know where a spider can wet his beak around these parts?” Was the only quip Peter could get out before a gunshot went off and the group dissolved into a flurry of movement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayyyyy this is another short one. I love suggestions if you should feel inclined, and I love reading how each of you guys has such a different take on the story in the comments!  
> I had to take this personality quiz for a class and I found which personality type I envision Noir.  
> [Noir's Personality Results](https://www.16personalities.com/isfj-personality)  
> If you take the test let me know what you got down in the comments! I got architect


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dreaded fight scene that took about two months to write. Anyways here you go ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the long wait for this chapter y'all, life snuck up on me and then I got sucker punched, but here ya go.

Noir felt his spider-sense warning him about the bullet moments before it left the barrel if the mobsters gun. He rolled to his left to avoid it and directly into a different mobster and attempted to push himself up from there but was stopped by a boot that was brought directly down on his rib cage. What happens from there is a bit of a blur, Noir felt himself get to his feet despite the onslaught of attacks. He was winning up until one punk caught him off guard and landed a hard hit in a wound from a fight a few nights ago. The attacker quickly realized he had found a weak spot and continued aiming for that area. 

Noir focused on the most pressing attacker and didn’t notice one of the other members sneaking up behind him.

As Noir delivered the knockout blow to his opponent he started to sign in relief at having got out of the scrap with all the hairs on his head when his spider-sense went haywire.

His feet felt like they were glued to the ground when he tried to move out of the way but he wasn’t fast enough. Noir heard the gunfire and the sound echoed through the night.

Noir felt the bullet tear through his midriff and ping onto the wall in front of him. Of course they would shoot him in the back, just his luck. Thankfully his movement had thrown off the aim of his shooter and hadn’t hit it’s intended target. Noir turned on his heel and quickly knocked him out. 

Peter shot a web onto both his front and back to cover the wound before swinging off as fast as he could towards his apartment. He hated that he had to leave those guys there but he also couldn’t risk them waking up and finishing him off for good. There would be another day to catch them but with a wound this serious he couldn’t risk staying around for much longer.

Peter felt his thoughts get more and more muddled in his head relying solely on instinct to guide him back to the apartment. He was moving quickly to get there before the adrenaline wore off and the pain that he knew was coming set in. The slight twinges of hurt were already starting to seep in and spread across his body. 

Once he reached his apartment Noir swung open the window and tumbled into his dimly lit apartment, as much as he hated this place boy was he glad to be back. Peter took a few breaths to help get his mind under control. He had to decide what to do next and under no circumstances should he allow himself to pass out. The chances of waking up after that would be slim to none. Prioritizing what he needed to be doing was difficult when it felt like his head was stuffed with cotton. Peter glanced down at his wound and winced at the dark grey blood that was seeping through his initial bandaging. Right getting the bleeding under control is what he needed to focus on.

The bullet had gone right through him which wasn’t ideal for stopping the bleeding but at least that meant he wouldn’t have to dig a bullet out. But that did mean he was bleeding out twice as fast and he has already lost a considerable amount of blood on the swing back.

Peter pushed himself off of the wall where he had been leaning and moved towards the couch in the living room, he always kept his first-aid there because it was easier to access than in the bathroom. Pulling out the rusty old tin that he kept his kit from where it was stashed caused a bolt of pain to shoot up his side. Peter grit his teeth and pulled out the alcohol, needle, thread, and gauze from the inside of his kit. He looked around for his bottle of pain meds that he had taken off a drug dealer years ago only to find it empty. Oh yeah, that right he has taken the last one a year ago when he had been in the middle of a case and needed to get rid of a migraine so he would have a clear head. Current Peter really hated past Peter for using it but he hadn’t known then that this would happen. Right focus Peter, can’t pass out. 

Peter slowly took the webbing off of his front to further access the damage, he hadn’t gotten a good look at it in the alley. He winced at the pain as the webbing was pulled off and quickly presses some gauze over it to help block some of the bleeding. Damn it was a lot bigger than he thought it was. Peter groaned and pulled off his overcoat and shirt to make sure that there wasn’t anything else he needed to attend to.

There was, of course, there was. In addition to the new wound he had decorating his front, he had opened some of the older ones from previous fights as well. Peter felt panic start to creep up on him, he had never been this injured before. Even the time he got the scar on his face wasn’t this bad. He might be headed for a Chicago overcoat if he didn’t stop dilly-dallying and actually get to work on cleaning himself up. 

Peter gave himself another small shake and took his mask off and got to work sewing up the bullet wound in his side. The mobster that shot him must have been using a bigger gauge for the hole to have been that big. Peter blinked a few times before he felt the darkness creeping into his vision. The darkness was accompanied by a lightheaded feel. Oh god, he lost too much blood. He couldn't go out like this. He hadn’t even gotten to say goodbye to his friends. 

That's it! One of his spider friends would help him, even if they weren’t that keen on him they wouldn’t let him die. Right? Well, at least he’d get to see color one last time before he went. Peter got up and after fighting the feeling of passing out off for a moment he stumbled over to the desk where he had been keeping his...whatever it was called that allowed him to go visit his friends. He stared at the object in his hands and had to figure out which dimension he was going to go to. He couldn't let any of the kids see him like this, they were too young to see something like this. That left B or Ham, Peter decided not to risk Ham’s dimension and pressed the button for B’s universe. The little device in his hands jumped to life and he saw the portal building in the middle of the room.

Noir stumbled over to where the portal was and went through. The last thing he saw before he passed out on was the brilliant colors of the sky and then darkness.

-Peter B.-

Peter was having a nice relaxing afternoon exercising (eating pizza on his sofa) when he heard the dimension hopper that Peni gave them start buzzing. Based on what she had told him it meant that one of the spiders had come through to his dimension. Which was weird because they weren’t supposed to be meeting this soon. After glancing over the screen it showed that the hop had come from Noir’s dimension, double weird, Noir is the last spider he’d expect to stop by for a visit. Maybe he had come by for an aspirin finally. Peter switched over to the tracking area where it showed the location of the other hoppers that were currently in the same dimension only to find that Noir’s hadn’t moved since he got here. A bell went off in Peter’s head and he ran over to the window and jumped out as he pulled his mask on and started swinging over to where the hopper said Noir was at. The monochrome spider must have gotten pretty badly injured for him to come to someone else's dimension, given how both of them were the same person despite being in different eras and were equally reluctant to ask for help. 

As Peter approached Noirs location, an alley a few streets over, what he saw was pretty gruesome. The older spiders upper body was covered in a dark grey liquid, which he could only assume was blood. Damn this is really bad. Peter dropped next to Noir and pulled him up as gently as possible. The man didn’t have his shirt or mask on, which was good considering that Peter was going to have to take him to the hospital, there was no way that he would be able to stitch him up before he bled out. 

Thankfully the nearest hospital wasn’t that far and Peter could easily carry him there. Peter webbed up the more serious injury on the side and then hoisted him over his shoulder fireman carry and made his way to the hospital. How was he going to explain this to the staff there? Maybe he just says something like it’s a Spiderman thing and hope that gets them through.

It did, Peter was his usual charming self (yelling loudly) and the staff reluctantly accepted his explanation about why the other man was grey. No one was sure how the blood transfusion was going to work but it was better than nothing.

Peter sat next to the hospital bed where Noir was laying listening to the machines beep. It was agony waiting for him to wake up. The doctors had said that Noir was lucky that Peter had gotten him when he did. Even still there’s a good chance that he wouldn’t wake up. To say Peter was scared for his friend was an understatement. 

How had Noir gotten this bad? Obviously he had been on the losing end of a fight with someone but still, the doctors said that he was suffering from exhaustion and slight malnutrition that had occurred before this. Peter looked at his friend, he looked like death, he was covered in bruises and gauze, some old some new. He could tell that Noir’s universe had not been kind to him. There were scars that looked like they were years old littering his body. Peter looked back down at his hands, he felt like this is what he would be like had it not been for MJ. Which begged the question, did Noir have an MJ? The other spider never mentioned any family or friends, but to be fair he didn’t talk that often either. Peter vowed to ask him about it when (if) he woke up, there was too much about Noir that they didn’t know that they probably should. Peter knew a lot about the other spiders but Noir was an enigma to him. Even though they were essentially the same person. 

Peter shook his head and pulled out the dimension hopper, Noir’s was stored safely in his pocket and debated whether or not to tell the other spiders about their monochrome friend's condition. On one hand, they should know that their friend was sick and there was a chance that he might not wake up, something that Peter is trying to avoid thinking about. On the other hand, all the kids were in school and would rush to the hospital to be by Noir’s side, which he had a feeling that their parents or guardians wouldn’t be happy about.

Peter decided to send Ham a message to let him know, seeing as how he was older than the kids and might be of some use. Though Peter had a feeling that a talking pig was going to be harder to explain to the hospital staff than the black and white man laying on the bed. Screw it, Peter couldn’t deal with this by himself and Ham would probably be helpful given the dire circumstances. With that in mind, Peter sent the pig a quick text and within two seconds had his reply. Ham was on his way to help. 

Peter leaned his head back on the wall and focused his eyes on the monitors and reasoned with himself. Noir was arguably one of the strongest of their group, he’d pull through and they could learn more about him. Peni will build him something to show that she’s glad he’s okay, Mile’s will probably paint him something, or help teach him some more colors so he can paint on his own. Gwen might not show it but she’ll show she cares in her own way, most likely by bringing fun foods for him to try.

“Come on Noir you gotta get better, we haven’t even got to know you yet,” Peter whispered to the steady beeping of the monitors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @plumcicle  
> big=wound size & location  
> tragedy=which universe Noir went to, Peter B was tragedy and Spider-Ham was comedy  
> Fast is yet to come ;)


End file.
